Nearly 5 years removed from his NIH directorship, Dr. Elias Zerhouni returned to campus June 4 to offer his views about how to value NIH research economically in an era of flat federal research budgets. His remarks at the end of a day-long meeting on that topic, conducted by the scientific review management board (SMRB), included vintage observations from the veteran of academia (Johns Hopkins), government (he was NIH director from 2002 to 2008) and industry (he is president of global research and development at French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi). For example, his comment that “it’s not very smart to go to the grocery store in an F-16 [fighter jet] when you can go on…

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I know you must think I’ve run off and joined a wolf pack, howling in the woods somewhere but I’m still here working on our wolf project. It’s taking much longer than we thought but it WILL happen soon!!

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I’ve started, and subsequently abandoned, several blog posts over the last two weeks. One was on the recent killing of six wolves (three were pups born in April) thought responsible for sheep depredations on Flat Top Ranch. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IF&G) offers no apologies for their actions, although if sheeper John Peavey’s requests had not been met to have the wolves taken out, I’m sure apologies would have been spewing.

I recently learned of the clout Peavey holds in Idaho. He was a long time senator who comes from a family of powerful politicians. In 1994 he ran against Butch Otter for lieutenant governor. Otter won, and we all know what happened after that.

Annually, Peavey receives more in federal farming subsidies than many Americans make in a year. Read more about this in a 2011 post from The Wildlife News, when three wolves were…

The apartment building at 253 W. 15th St. in New York City is reportedly using glue traps for rodent control! PETA implored Page Apartments, the management company responsible for the building in question, to consider methods that are less cruel, don’t pose health risks, and are more cost-effective, but our pleas have gone unanswered. Your voice is needed!

Glue traps are some of the most vile products on the market, causing immense and prolonged suffering. Victims often rip themselves to pieces in their frantic struggles to escape the sticky mess. Exhausted and terrified, they succumb to shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss—and death can take days. Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as Health Canada warn against using glue traps because of disease risks posed by the many pathogens in the waste of stressed rodents.